Theoretical aspects of the study on the new bismuth chalcogenide based superconductors

TL;DR

This paper reviews the theoretical understanding of BiCh2-based superconductors, focusing on electronic structure, phonon interactions, and pairing mechanisms, to elucidate their superconducting properties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the theoretical studies on BiCh2 superconductors, highlighting electronic, phononic, and pairing aspects that are crucial for understanding their behavior.

Findings

Correlation between electronic structure and lattice geometry

Identification of lattice instability issues

Discussion of phonon-mediated and unconventional pairing mechanisms

Abstract

We review theoretical aspects of the studies on the recently discovered BiCh2 (Ch=chalcogen) based superconductors. We first focus on the electronic band structure, the Fermi surface and their correlation with the lattice structure. We then discuss the phonon features and the issue of the lattice instability. Finally, we survey the phonon-mediated as well as the unconventional pairing mechanisms that have been proposed so far.